Observation of B --> eta' K* and Evidence for B --> eta' rho+

Abstract

We present an observation of $B\toη^\prime K^*$. The data sample corresponds to 232 million $B\bar{B}$ pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy $B$ Factory at SLAC. We measure the branching fractions (in units of $10^{-6}$) $\mathcal{B}(B^0\toη^\prime K^{*0}) = 3.8\pm1.1\pm0.5$ and $\mathcal{B}(B^+\toη^\prime K^{*+}) = 4.9^{+1.9}_{-1.7}\pm0.8$, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. A simultaneous fit results in the observation of $B\toη^\prime K^*$ with $\mathcal{B}(B\toη^\prime K^*) = 4.1_{-0.9}^{+1.0} \pm 0.5$. We also search for $B\toη^\prime ρ$ and $B\toη^\prime f_0(980)(f_0 \to π^+π^-)$ with results and 90% confidence level upper limits $\mathcal{B}(B^+\toη^\prime ρ^+) = 8.7^{+3.1}_{-2.8}{} ^{+2.3}_{-1.3}$ ($<14$), $\mathcal{B}(B^0\toη^\prime ρ^0) < 3.7$ and $\mathcal{B}(B^0\toη^\prime f_0(980)(f_0\toπ^+π^-)) < 1.5$. Charge asymmetries in the channels with significant yields are consistent with zero.